1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integrated circuit memory, and more particularly to data retention issues arising in non-volatile memory.
2. Description of Related Art
In flash memory devices, data is stored by trapping charge that establishes a cell threshold in memory cells. By sensing the cell threshold, data values can be read. However, as the memory cell sizes are reduced, charge retention, and therefore data retention, can suffer. In non-volatile memory devices configured to store data for long periods of time and through power-on/off events, data retention is an important performance factor.
It is desirable to provide technologies to improve non-volatile memory performance, and, in general, to improve data retention for integrated circuit memory.